FROM THE SOLE: PUMA, WHERE ART THOU?

Puma are a brand that I’ve got a massive amount of love for, and one of the reasons I admire the German Giant so much is it’s glorious history in the world of Football.

Even it’s origins, forged after a falling out between two brothers – one who went on to form adidas in the same village – is like the stuff of legend.

But in the past few months, we’ve seen the great Cat stutter and stumble somewhat in the post-World Cup/Pre-New-Season gap.

After a hugely impressive showing at the World Cup, with it’s focus on sponsorship of African football as well as backing surprise Dark-Horses Uruguay; Puma seemed to be ending the summer on a high.

Puma’s football boots were also well represented – the v1.10 and Puma PowerCat 1.10 clocking in as the 8th and 9th most worn boots at the tournament, respectively, despite the v1.10’s originally frosty reception.

And since then, things have taken a turn for the weird.

The Monday after the World Cup finished, Puma revealed the Puma v1.10 SL, (baring in mind that Puma didn’t sneak them onto the feet of any of the players in the World Cup Final). And since then, haven’t really done anything with them.

We haven’t seen a great deal of advertising (online or otherwise) for the Puma v1.10 SL, which – considering it is the lightest football boot in production in the World to date – is really strange.

Toronto FC’s Dwanye De Rosario – the only player we’ve seen in the v1.10SL

The other blow for Puma will come in the form of players who are migrating to other brands of football boots, such as John Carew and Nicolas Anelka, who have both been spotted in the adidas F50 adiZero.

This is the only ad for the v1.10SL we’ve ever seen!

Whilst we understand that when a player’s sponsorship contract is over there’s very little you can do to keep hold of them – it’d be great to see Puma re-purpose the money from Anelka and Carew’s contracts and promote the Puma v1.10 SL wherever humanly possible.

It’s a known fact that lightweight football boots are usually very good sellers, but we can’t help but wonder if the average Joe knows that Puma make the lightest football boot in the world? Because we haven’t seen the Puma promote this fact enough for our tastes!

Puma have a potentially market changing boot on their hands, and it’d be great to see them pick up where the ‘Love=Football’ campaign left off in time for the new season. But the harsh reality is, if they don’t start turning heads soon, all the hard work and research that went into the Puma v1.10 SL will have been wasted – as next to no-one will be wearing it!

If you were in Puma’s shoes, what would you do to push the Puma v1.10 SL going into the new season?

9 Comments

Well….one thing is it only comes in size (US) 9-10.5? Wtf is that? I mean that fits a good amount of people, but A. Why does it only come in that size and B. They cant make Jr editions and many people literally cant wear them. Speed boots (aside from Adizeros) have become a joke. I wear vapor 5s because of the cleats and the feel. However, almost every nike “speed” boot since the vapor 3 has been heavier. Superfly 2’s are $400 for 8.0 ounces? Thats the same as vapor 5s. How ridiculous. Great Idea Puma, lets see if you can actually make a product.

I’m with bob, in fact I might fit in those perimeters and buy these boots but I think if Puma doesn’t act faster the people at Adidas might beat them with their new Adizero Prime. I have a few doubts about this new SL though… 1) Why does the toe area curve upward in such a strange way? 2) The material itself looks like it will tear pretty easily, and Puma have a history of shoes that tear easily, given the v1.06, and even the lower versions of the v1.08 from what I have seen.

Ricardo I have heard that the durability in these shoes is top notch. I had v1.08 for more than a year and that included an average of 4 practices addition to games every week on indoor turf, out door turf, dirt and grass and the only thing that happened is I got a tear in the first cloth layer (shoe still very functional) from someone with a metal cleat stepping on it. The truth of the matter is, if someone steps on you in any cleats, its going to hurt…

adidas has really done well marketing the adizero….watch any game of the world cup…and there were at least 2 ads for it during halftime….puma 1needsa hero to wear them……Eto…done…2 …neds to make sure people KNOW THAT THEY ARE THE LIGHTEST….and let the sales begin

does any1 no ware you can get puma ‘para mexico’ from?, seen them on a japan website, look’t on every site i can think of, still can’t find them, any1 remember ‘puma SPA kings’ or they any out ther? robbie flower, ryan gigg, used to ware them,